FREEPORT

The Regional School Unit 5 Board of Directors will consider adopting the Withdrawal Agreement crafted by the Freeport Withdrawal Committee and RSU 5 Working Group at a special meeting Wednesday night.

In December 2013, Freeport residents voted 953-768 to pursue withdrawal, forming a four-member withdrawal committee tasked with crafting a Withdrawal Agreement with members of the school board, represented by the working group.

The agreement addresses 11 points required in the state’s withdrawal statue, said Freeport Withdrawal Committee chairperson and member of the RSU 5 school board, Peter Murray. Additionally, it includes a tuition contract, per the request of the Working Group, he said.

According to a memo from the withdrawal committee to the board of directors, the agreement “embodies significant compromise on the part of Freeport in an effort to ‘bridge the gap.’ This agreement does not represent a ‘victory’ for Freeport.”

Though a tuition contract is not a statutory requirement, Murray said, “The (Working Group) would not agree to the other 11 points without a tuition contract that they liked — so we’ve been trying to navigate those waters.”

Already past the preliminary deadline set by the Maine Department of Education, Murray said the Withdrawal Committee made every effort to produce an agreement in time for a November withdrawal referendum to take place.

The withdrawal agreement “represents the Free- port Withdrawal Committee’s ‘best and final offer,’” the memo stated. “The committee is unanimous that the terms herein are as far as Freeport can reach and that the town will need to pursue other avenues if this does not pass next week.”

Those avenues could include “legal and legislative options to clarify the situation and move forward,” said Murray.

The chairperson of the working group was not immediately reachable by phone.

According to the Withdrawal Agreement, in which the withdrawal committee represents the town of Freeport and the working group represents the RSU, Freeport would form a new Freeport School Administrative Unit to educate Freeport resident students from pre-K to grade 12 starting July 1, 2015.

During the year following withdrawal, the 2015-16 school year, Freeport would continue to educate any RSU 5 student previously enrolled in RSU 5 schools, that would have attended a Freeport school had the withdrawal not occurred.

Similarly, Freeport students attending RSU 5 schools — of which Murray said there are a handful — may continue to attend their intended schools for one school year following withdrawal.

“There is a requirement for the year after withdrawal that they be allowed to stay where they are and then after that we would work hard to negotiate with the RSU,” said Murray. “Everybody wants to do a good job educating the kids and so we’re all going to work through any situation to find the best possible outcome.”

According to the agreement, Freeport would serve as the school of record — a school that guarantees acceptance of students for a 10-year period following withdrawal — for middle school students from Pownal.

Pownal Elementary School serves only up to grade five, and Durham Community School, which serves up to grade eight, is currently at capacity according to school officials, said Murray.

For 10 years following withdrawal, Pownal and Durham students attending Freeport Middle School or Freeport High School, can continue to be educated in Freeport provided they remain continuously enrolled in Freeport schools.

Freeport High School, which will be administered by the New Freeport SAU, will accept students from Pownal and Durham up to a maximum total of 500 students, according to the agreement.

Final tuition rates will be determined by the Department of Education, though in the terms of the agreement, RSU 5 would pay tuition for 95 percent of the students that committed to enrolling in Freeport High School, or for 60 students — whichever number is greater.

“First (the high school) will accept Freeport students already in the district,” said Murray. “Freeport students not currently in the district would have next dibs, and then RSU students would be next.”

The anticipated enrollment at Freeport High School for next year is “in the high 490s,” said Murray.

“Everybody acknowledges is that it is too crowded,” said Murray. “We had wanted to set the limit at 450, and said we would acquiesce — this is a significant compromise form our prior position and from what we and a lot of people in the community think would be good.”

A $14.6 million bond to expand and renovate the high school — which Freeport voters passed last November, despite being voted down in Pownal and Durham — is on hold, said Murray, and will be null and void if the withdrawal goes through.

Though the high school would still require renovation, an expansion would not have to occur, said Murray, which could be significant cost-savings to all three towns.

“The Brunswick School Department has offered to serve as the school of guaranteed acceptance for RSU 5 secondary students for a 10- year period following withdrawal,” the withdrawal agreement states, and Murray affirmed that an informal poll indicated that a majority of Durham and Pownal secondary students may transition to Brunswick High School.

No personnel would be terminated in the first year after withdrawal, said Murray, and will remain at the schools they are currently employed at. A few staff who are cross-district, will be employed either by the RSU or by the New Freeport SAU.

After the first year, staffing will be determined by a School Committee, which would be elected prior to withdrawal to ease the transition, and a superintendent hired by the committee. Additionally, buses and other vehicles will be divided to remain at the schools they are currently servicing.

A preliminary sample budget would be drafted by the town, Murray said, if withdrawal is validated in the November referendum and it would cause a budget increase for Freeport.

“It will only be a prediction, because the budget will really depend on the decisions of the school committee,” said Murray, and as Pownal and Durham will have school choice, “the decisions of individuals will have an economic impact.”

The Withdrawal Agreement “may meet the ultimate test of a good compromise,” according to the withdrawal committee memo — ”that both sides are equally unhappy about it.”

rgargiulo@timesrecord.com